Bosses forced to reveal inequality in laws targeting gender pay gap

Date: November 24 2012

Stephanie Peatling

COMPANIES will have to report how many women they employ and how much they earn compared to their male colleagues as part of a ''ground-breaking'' federal government attempt to close the gender pay gap.

From April next year, businesses with more than 100 employees will also have to detail what flexible working arrangements they offer employees and how many people take them up.

Minister for the Status of Women Julie Collins said the reporting would ''go a long way to promoting the cultural change necessary to create true gender equality in our workplaces''.

Aspects of the legislation were contested by business representatives, as well as the opposition, which accused the government of creating more regulatory red tape.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry director of workplace policy Daniel Mammone said there were risks of little change from the approach - only extra regulation.

Mr Mammone said it was expected the overall reporting burden would ''significantly increase as a result of having to provide increased information to the regulator''.

However, several industry leaders spoke in favour of the changes including Telstra chief executive officer David Thodey, Alcoa Australia managing director Alan Cransberg, ExxonMobil Australia chairman John Dashwood, and Australian Institute of Company Directors chief executive John Colvin.

''While we know there is still more work to do, the new legislation will provide an even stronger focus, create higher expectations around accountability and ultimately support organisations like ours to achieve better outcomes in this important area,'' Mr Thodey said.

The opposition's spokeswoman, Michaelia Cash, said the reporting requirements would ''divert the attention of employers away from efforts to implement measures to promote workplace equality to ensure they are compliant with the procedural requirements of the legislation''.

The director of workplace relations for the Australian Industry Group, Peter Nolan, said: ''There is so much that they have to comply with at the moment that we see this as an added burden, and that would be an adverse effect.''

The information provided by individual companies will not necessarily be made public. But it will be used by the federal government to provide snapshots of the position of women workers across different industries.

Companies that do not comply will not be able to apply for government funding or contracts.

The legislation changes the name of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. It will be the government body to collect the new data. Next year will be a transitional period before companies begin the reporting process in 2014.

Agency director Helen Conway said the legislation was ''ground-breaking''. ''The act recognises that the days when women did all the caring and men were the sole breadwinners are long gone. It's time workplace practices caught up with the way we live today.''

With BEN SCHNEIDERS

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